2023 Annual Meeting

Interim Executive Director Joyce Leiz reviewed the year’s achievements. Photo by Tomas Koeck.

November 4, 2023 — Members of the Connecticut Audubon Society gathered in Fairfield today for the organization’s Annual Meeting and to mark and celebrate Connecticut Audubon’s 125th anniversary.

The meeting was held at the Fairfield Museum and History Center, on the Historic Town Green.

“We chose this location because the Connecticut Audubon Society was founded in this very neighborhood 125 years ago, in 1898,” Board Chair Pamela Fraser, Ph.D., said in her welcoming remarks. “The founders were a group of women who were determined to be part of a movement to protect birds that were being driven to the brink of extinction.  

“In fact, the first annual meeting was held next door in the old Town Hall. So this is our home, our birthplace. To our members, thank you. Over the past year and for many years before you have steadfastly supported conservation in Connecticut. Your membership is carrying out the goals and objectives set forth by those founders 125 years ago.“

Joyce Leiz, interim esecutive director, reviewed the year’s activities and used the occasion to thank members for the many achievements their membership accomplished.

“Your membership and your support has made a difference for conservation in Connecticut,” she said. “The conservation work that your membership makes possible breaks down into three areas: habitats, education, and advocacy.”

For the full Year in Review, click here.

Members elected Von Potter, M.D., to the Board. Read more about him here.

The meeting, which was attended by about 100 people, concluded with a presentation titled “The Fairfield Women Who Founded the Connecticut Audubon Society,” by Tom Andersen, the organization’s communications director.